CIVIL SERVANTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 65, Issue 5493, 3 July 1942, Page 5

CIVIL SERVANTS

SUPREME IN THEIR SPHERE “The Civil Servants of this country (Great Gritain) are supreme in their own sphere. What is sometimes called ‘red tape’ is an essential feature of administration, when every action may be subject to subsequent enquiry by Parliament, and every item of expenditure may be submitted to close examination by the Auditor-General and possibly a Select Committee of the House of Commons. The Civil Servant is bound to walk warily and to walk slowly. He is governed by rules and regulatiqns which are necessary, however irritating they may appear to the business man who is answerable only to himself and his partners, and possibly once a year to such shareholders as may attend the annual meeting of the company over which he presides. The very virtues of the Civil Service, its meticulous care over details and its deliberate methods, are its defects in the commercial sphere, in which initiative and quick decisions, based on knowledge of markets, are the secrets of success.—Sir Archibald Hurd, in his book, “Who Goes There?"